Is there an opposite of close-up magic? If there is, it would look a bit like the magic in Now You See Me, which must be visible (and audible) from space. This new spectacle, heading later this year to its spiritual home of Las Vegas, spins off from the movie franchise of the same name and features a quartet of conjurors (identifying, rather awkwardly, as “the Horsemen”) performing feats of escapology, mentalism and even time travel amid much bombastic son et lumière and self-promotion.
It could scarcely be more pompous – but happily, there are plenty of entertaining tricks to keep pomp-phobes like myself onside. The Italian Andrew Basso has arguably the stoppiest showstoppers, including his recreation of Houdini’s water torture stunt, and another where he extricates himself from padlocked chains while harbouring something very undesirable in his mouth. His French counterpart Enzo Weyne delivers an arresting number with a paper bag and a lightbulb, and there’s a fine audience participation set piece inviting us all to shred, shuffle then – as if by magic! – reassemble the playing cards we were given on the way in to the theatre.
Does any of this benefit from the noisy theatrics and inflated self-regard? (For the latter, see MC Matthew Pomeroy’s boast that this show is reversing magic’s historic gender inequalities, despite only one of the show’s seven acts being female.) Far from it – on more than one occasion, the estimable skills on display are undermined by the smoke and lasers, while the self-aggrandising sets expectations that not all these tricks can meet.
How much more impressive would these feats be if staged sparsely? Just ask seven-year-old audience volunteer Elektra, who cited as her favourite act the ex Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Eden Choi, whose quickfire cameo, a silent but deadly card manipulation sequence, requires no embellishment. It’s one of several adroit set pieces in a show that proves there’s life yet in the ancient arts of wriggling out of a straitjacket and squeezing oneself into a dynamited safe – even if I found myself wishing pestilence on the four horsemen’s overblown style.
• At London Coliseum, until 6 September
